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An example that comes to mind quickly are various compositions of American composer Ives. He incorporated popular and folk melodies, creating a mosaic blend (often dissonant) of those tunes, scored for orchestra. First movement of his 4th Symphony is a variation of a religious song he probably heard as a kid, in church, or somewhere like that.Although classical composers have created many catchy and memorable melodies, to me, the real talent of most composers is to weave these melodies into incredibly complex and beautiful musical pieces that we call "classical."
I think a lot of composers do that, consciously or not. One who didn't, was Edgard Varese. I've listened to his works, and never found anything in them that I could attribute to a folk tune, popular or not. I think I heard a boiler room steam valve malfunction that kind of reminded me of one of his tunes, though.